Premier League of
Ireland

Fixtures & Results
2010

Airtricity League of Ireland

The League of Ireland
is the foremost Irish domestic football league. The League was born
in 1921 out of the Irish War of Independence. Up to that point football
in Ireland was controlled and administered by the Irish Football
Association (IFA) in Belfast. Shelbourne from Dublin and Glenavon
from Lurgan in Northern Ireland had played out a 0-0 draw in the
semi-final of the Irish Cup. The replay was scheduled to be played
on St Patrick's day in Dublin however due to the war Glenavon refused
to travel south. The IFA ruled that the replay should be played
in Belfast.

Shelbourne protested
at the loss of home advantage and refused to play the game in Belfast
which, the Dublin club claimed, was just as dangerous as Dublin
and was in fact under a military curfew. Shelbourne, the only professional
club in Dublin, withdrew from the competition and was effectively
out in the footballing wilderness. The scene was now set for the
establishment of a breakaway league, from the IFA, in the south
of Ireland.

The Split

Following a truce
in the War of Independence in June 1921 the Irish Free State, and
the six counties Northern Ireland state, were established. Most
other sports had been controlled and administered from Dublin but
because the history
of Irish football was firmly rooted in Belfast, soccer was administered
from the North.

At a meeting in Molesworth
Hall in Dublin, on 1st June 1921 some of the major figures in football
in the 26 counties met to discuss the possibility of forming a separate
football association to administer football in the south of Ireland.
The implications of such a move were very significant as the IFA
was recognised internationally as the representative body of football
in Ireland. Footballers from southern Ireland might be denied an
international

football outlet. Nevertheless the decision
was made to go it alone and the Irish Free State Football Association
was formed. On Saturday 17th September 1921 the Irish Free State League
of Ireland kicked off with three football fixtures: Bohemians
V YMCA; Shelbourne V Frankfort; and St
James's Gate V Dublin United. The other teams in the fledgling
League of Ireland were Jacobs and Olympia. It is believed that Frank
Haine of Bohemians scored the first ever goal in the new league. By
the end of 1921 the League program had been completed and St James's
Gate were the first League of Ireland champions.

First League of Ireland Table

TEAM

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

St James's Gate

14

11

1

2

31

8

23

Bohemians

14

10

1

3

35

13

21

Shelbourne

14

8

2

4

31

21

18

Olympia

14

5

4

5

20

21

14

Jacobs

14

4

4

6

23

27

12

Frankfort

14

3

5

6

22

32

11

Dublin United

14

5

0

9

25

39

10

YMCA

14

0

3

11

17

43

3

History of the League of Ireland

For more than a decade
the League of Ireland was dominated by the big three Dublin clubs,
Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers, and
Shelbourne. It wasn't until 1933, when Dundalk
FC triumphed, that a team outside the capital won the league.
In the 1930's and 1940's Sligo Rovers
and Cork United also claimed the League of Ireland title. Because
Ireland remained neutral during World War II the League of Ireland
was not suspended as it was elsewhere. During the war years Cork
United dominated the league by winning the title five seasons out
of six during the 1940's. Waterford had its' glory period when the
Munster outfit won the League of Ireland title six seasons out of
eight in the 1960's and 1970's. The next team to dominate for a
sustained period was Shamrock Rovers. Following the failed John
Giles / Rovers project Jim McLaughlin took charge of the Glenmalure
Park outfit and captured four League of Ireland titles in a
row from 1984 to 1987. Shelbourne is the last team to achieve similar
levels of dominance when the club won the league title on five occasions
in a seven year period from 1999 to 2006.

Summer Soccer for the League of
Ireland

Over the years the
League and its' clubs have tried a number of innovations and restructurings
to try to reinvigorate the country's premier soccer competition
and to attract greater attendances. In 2003 summer soccer was introduced
to the League of Ireland. This involves playing league games from
March to November. It was hoped that playing soccer in better climatic
conditions would attract new fans who would not have the distraction
of English Premier League football. It was also hoped that it would
help give the League of Ireland clubs a competitive advantage in
European competitions. The latter objective has been achieved to
the extent that the League's UEFA ranking, as determined on the
basis of the sum of the UEFA country coefficients, has risen from
40 (in 2005) to 29 (at the time of writing in 2010). Unfortunately
the crowds have not turned up at League of Ireland matches in the
numbers that had been hoped for when summer soccer was introduced.

Merger of the League of Ireland
and the FAI

The 2005 Genesis
Report urged that the previously recommended merger between the
FAI and
the League of Ireland should go ahead on the basis that the role
of the FAI "... is to manage the game for the benefit of
football in the country. The League is a key component to that and
it should be managed ... for the greater good of the game in Ireland."
The League clubs agreed to the merger and at the League of Ireland
AGM on 8th December 2006 the League was dissolved.

Over the years a
number of League clubs have run aground because of the mismanagement
of the the financial aspect of the club. The FAI has introduced
a more rigorous licensing regime (clubs must be licensed to play
in the League) that incorporates financial regulations including
the Salary Cost Protocol. Since 2008 wage controls have been
in place to regulate a clubs' spending on players' wages and costs
to a maximum of 65% of relevant income. Despite this two clubs,
Derry City and Cork City were demoted from the Premier League to
the First Division for the 2010 season because of financial irregularities
and mismanagement.